The Reading-Watching Sub-genre
by Another Guest1029
Summary: Fair warning, this is one of those stories that's actually more of a critique on things. This one specifically about fanfictions that have characters react to other shows and whatnot. If you only want an actual story to read, this aint it. That said, I hope you enjoy this work. Don't like, read anyway and tell me why, please.


My Thoughts: The Reading/Watching/Reacting Sub-genre

To those that don't know, there is a sub-genre in fanfiction where someone will write a story about one series' characters reacting to another piece of media. The media they react to can be anything: cartoons, TV shows, other fanfictions, etc. For example, you could write a story where Naruto and friends watch Fullmetal Alchemist. Usually, the content of the show Naruto and his friends would watch are in **Bold** text, such as the scenes, dialogue and actions. These stories are usually called Readings, though they can have the word Watch or React in their name.

I'll be honest with you all, I do tend to follow these stories as a guilty pleasure from time to time. And I can see the appeal to it too. Why do people like watching their favorite characters react to media that the readers also like? Well, let me ask you first, have you ever tried getting someone you know to watch an anime you liked? You probably have, and it was most likely because you wanted to see someone have the same reactions to the show as you did. Validation, friendship, simply wanting a conversation, the reasons vary but we all want to talk about stuff we like.

And when the people reacting are the characters we love, well that's even better isn't it. The most well-known example I can think of in this sub-genre is Epicvictory2025's RWBY Watches Death Battle. (Sorry if I got your name wrong man, I'm very shitty with remembering names!). And when I discovered this fic I read every chapter as soon as they came out and even had the Death Battle episodes playing on another tab. I was enamored with the idea that the characters I already liked were also into the web show I liked to watch. It just gave me some feel-good emotions, thinking that I could have something to actually talk about with my favorite characters.

There's also a kind of giddy, childlike fun in these stories. Much like when you trick your sibling into watching a video that they don't know has jump-scares. It's almost like a reality game show or something; we humans just like to watch the funny reactions that other humans have to all sorts of stimuli. Do you know how long I waited to see the RWBY reaction to Guts' battle, only for the story to be taken off Fanfiction? I was pissed! I wanted to see them cry at Guts' backstory like some demented sociopath, and that's fine. No matter how much you may relate to the characters in video games, you'll still kill them from time to time because you're bored. We know these characters aren't real and can treat them like objects. I mean, how many stories have you sought out because it said something horrible happened to a certain character? There's an angst setting here for a reason.

It's all about catharsis, bleeding out our pent-up emotions into these characters so that we have some relief through them. Hell, the ancient Greeks knew it, that's why they wrote plays like Oedipus where horrible, horrible things happen to the characters.

I soon also went looking for fics that were readings of other fanfics. Which makes sense, since it's just another form of media we like and want our favorite characters to experience. But these fics are special because we get to see the characters react to alternate forms of themselves or have embarrassing secrets come up, which is all sorts of juicy goodness I want to sink my teeth into. I also like the idea of the whole thing, that these fanfictions do have devoted fans. So much so that the fanfictions have fanfictions, proving that this whole genre isn't just cringe, but something people can love just as much as the actual stories.

Then again, it may also prove that cringe can be squared. I don't know.

All of that aside, I will not lie and say that the reading sub-genre doesn't have its flaws, it has a lot of flaws. I'd say spelling and grammar need work, but I could say that about every fanfic (probably about this work, too). No, instead I'll say that some of these reactions are not as great as they could be.

My first problem with the characters' reactions is length. There are a lot of reaction stories where the characters simply don't say enough. If I wanted to read/watch the actual stories that are being reacted to, I'd go and read them instead of being annoyingly interrupted by single sentences every couple of paragraphs. People, you got to remember the reaction part of these reaction fics! I do not want characters giving a single sentence - with the rare paragraph - for when someone dies, that is really shitty. _YOU_ HAVE MORE TO SAY ABOUT THAT! WHY WOULDN'T THESE CHARACTERS? And hell, have them nitpick and stuff. I know I do it whenever I watch something, and not just the main scripted events. I'd love it if a JoJo was reading Naruto and he complained about the headbands not making sense for ninja because they identify ninja when they should be in disguise! Because NINJA! I'd love little stupid shit like that!

Another thing is the types of reactions some of these characters have and how they make no sense. I'll admit to liking and reading RWBY Watches Death Battle, but I hated every time RWBY cried when their favorite character died in a match…and then they clap and applaud because the fight was 'cool'. That is so damn jarring and makes no sense. I don't feel bad for Rem being ripped apart and then laugh immediately after because it reminded me of twister, that's not how normal people react…until they had time to digest it. It makes the characters in these stories feel like they're on their periods or taking something. It's not how the actual characters would act, and we'd like them a lot less if they did.

On that note, these stories need to be much clearer on how much the characters believe what they're watching/reading is real. Shit, I've seen a bunch of react fics to Death Battle have characters cry at the TMNT fight, even though the readers AND the characters were explicitly told these fights were holograms or simulations, which means all of that crying is bullshit anyway. Did any of you actually cry when the TMNT death battle first aired? No, because it was a pixelated web cartoon about killing and we all knew it, we expected it. If you say you cried watching it I'll call you a liar or someone who probably shouldn't watch that stuff anyway.

Another nitpick of the whole genre is these author inserts. Where the author shows up as a furry half the time or some godlike being in their favorite anime armor. Just…stop. Just. Fucking. Stop. I will drop a story like hot shit if I catch a whiff of these kinds of characters showing up, because when they do, the author can't stop themselves from hijacking the whole show and being biased as fuck. Look guys, I appreciate you writing these stories and sharing it with us, but when I want to just hear about the characters reactions and nothing else, I can't give two-ripping-shits about what you have to say about it. Go write a wish-fulfillment power fantasy if that's what you really want. Funnily enough, stories where they have the attendants from the Velvet Room taking up this role do not really annoy me. Probably because they are also characters and tend to keep quiet when the actual reacting characters are talking. Not to say it can't be fucked up, cause someone probably has. I mean it's fanfiction.

The final topic I wanted to talk about is how I think reading fics are generally better than the watching ones. What I mean by that is fanfics that react to other fanfics are better than the ones that react to shows, games, etc. And you know why? Because the **Bold** text in the reading fics are way more interesting and fun than the ones in watching fics. Go look up any fic that reacts to Death Battle and you'll notice that a lot of them write the fights in very bland and descript ways like: **The Megazord then tried to punch the Decepticon in the face, but the Decepticon ducked and kicked the Megazord away.**

But it could be written like: **The Megazord's gambit had paid off, now it only needed one final blow to end this monster's threat once and for all. It threw one mighty jab at its foe's head, the strength of a meteor a second away from smashing the metal skull into oblivion.**

 **But, at the very last instant, the Decepitcon ducked! It's sluggish movements nothing more than a feint! Too late to pull back and overextended, the Megazord had no way of stopping the blindingly quick kick to the chest. The Mighty Megazord was launched through the air and crashed into the ground hard. Its body digging a canyon into the battlefield.**

Or something like that.

There's a few Death Battle reacts that rewrite the battles themselves, and those tend to be better because the fights fit the written media. Having someone write down what happens in a video is like reading a script, which is not as interesting as the actual visual fight. But then you have authors who write stories where those fights were meant to be read. And then the reading fics copy and paste them and I have no problem believing that characters would react to these fights with a 'wow'. Look, to anyone reading this who has written a react fic and the fights are described like the first example, I don't _want_ to tell you that your fights stink, but you really need to spice that shit up. Your competing with the original _video_ battles for crying out loud.

And it's not like this can happen with just the fights, either. People can screw up the dialogue scenes just by not giving a very good description of what the characters' faces looked like. If a picture is worth a thousand words then add a thousand words to your stories.

That's about all I have to say about this topic. Tell me your thoughts in reviews or PMs, whatever works for you. Also, please tell me what I might have screwed up grammatically, especially with commas cause I always have trouble with those. And if you want to send me flames, hey, that's fine too. My house has been chilly lately. And don't be afraid to tell me if I should move this work to another…shit, I'm forgetting the word. Tell me if I should put this in the X-overs section or whatever. I just noticed that RWBY seems to have a lot of these fics and thought I'd put it here.


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